BBC ON THIS DAY | 28 | 1986: Swedish prime minister assassinated About This Site | Text Only 1986: Swedish prime minister assassinated The Swedish prime minister has died after being shot in a street ambush in central Stockholm. His wife was wounded. Olof and Lisbeth Palme were attacked as they were leaving a cinema at about 2330 local time. Mr Palme was shot twice in the stomach, his wife was shot in the back. Police say a taxi-driver used his mobile radio to raise the alarm. Two young girls sitting in a car close to the scene of the shooting tried to help the Prime Minister. He was rushed to hospital but was dead on arrival. Mrs Palme is being treated for her injury, but it is not thought to be life threatening. Advocate of peace Mr Palme, 59, and a social democrat, was serving his second term as leader. He believed in open government and shunned tight security. He had two bodyguards to protect him on official functions but frequently walked unattended through the Swedish capital and went on holidays unescorted to his summer cottage on the island of Gotland. His assassination will come as a shock to the Swedes.

They have always taken great pride in the fact their prime minister could walk openly in the streets without the security which accompanies other heads of state. Mr Palme will be remembered as a campaigner for the working classes and Third World causes. He was first elected as prime minister in 1969. He became a leading advocate of peace and non violence and campaigned for an end to the war in Vietnam. He saw himself carrying the banner of Social Democracy through Europe at a time when the Right was only temporarily in triumph. He once said: "I know that the Thatchers and the Reagans will be out in a few years. We have to survive till then." Olof Palme murder inquiry takes another twist with revoked alibi | World news | The Guardian Sweden Olof Palme murder inquiry takes another twist with revoked alibi Swedish newspaper with access to author Stieg Larsson's files on former PM's murder tracks down former girlfriend of suspect Olaf Palme was killed on 28 February 1986 as he walked home from a cinema.

Photograph: John Wahlbaerj/EPA Thursday 27 February 2014 07.39 EST First published on Thursday 27 February 2014 07.39 EST Close This article is 2 years old Sweden's national obsession with the unsolved 1986 murder of its then-prime minister Olof Palme – renewed this week by a revelation that novelist Stieg Larsson helped police with the investigation – has taken yet another twist after it emerged that a key suspect no longer has an alibi for the night in question. Palme, a populist, leftwing politician whose views made him numerous enemies at home and abroad, was shot in February 1986 as he walked home with his wife from a cinema in Stockholm. Almost 30 years of inquiries has seen the focus fall on everyone from South African agents – Palme was a vocal critic of apartheid – to rogue Swedish spies. On Tuesday a Swedish newspaper revealed that Larsson – the late author of the hugely successful Millennium trio of crime thrillers, and an expert on far-right groups – left 15 boxes of files connected to his own probe into the case.

Larsson passed police the name of Bertil Wedin, a Swede with links to South African security services, as the man who organised the killing. Wedin, now living in northern Cyprus, denies this and police say he is not a suspect. However, the newspaper given access to Larsson's files, Svenska Dagbladet, reported on Thursday that its own investigations had brought a new lead about another right-wing activist who was an associate of Wedin. Alf Enerström, a doctor and implacable rightwing opponent of Palme who spent time in a psychiatric hospital after shooting a policewoman, was investigated closely by police but always maintained that at the time of the killing he was at home with his then-partner – an account she backed up. However, when questioned by Svenska Dagbladet, Gio Petre, a former actor who separated from Enerström in the late 1990s, said this wasn't the case. On the night of the murder Enerström in fact left the flat saying he had to put money in a parking meter, Petre said.

She told the paper: "I thought it was strange because it was free parking on a Friday night and over the weekend. He came back late." Asked why she had not said this before, Petre said: "I did not dare. I was scared of Alf, he was violent. You are the first people to ask me about this in a long time." Enerström was of interest to the police because he was known to be a gun lover and a vehement critic of Palme. According to Svenska Dagbladet he told police he saw Palme as a traitor, saying: "Whoever killed Palme wasn't just doing a service to God, they also did the country a favour." Petre also told the newspaper she believed her former partner owned a Smith & Wesson revolver at the time, the type of gun police believe was used to shoot Palme. Enerström, now 83 and no longer under psychiatric care, told the newspaper the allegations were nonsense: "What Gio says about me isn't true. She might well have withdrawn the alibi, but it's what she said before that was true.

I never went out alone." Kerstin Sharp, a Swedish prosecutor who has worked on the case since 1997, said earlier this week that Larsson's tip about Wedin was not part of the police investigation. She declined to comment on the specifics of the new allegations about Enerström but said such information could be useful. "In general terms I can say a changed alibi could be interesting, depending on other circumstances. It may also be that it has very little significance. With guns, we are always interested," she said. Unsolved shooting of prime minister in 1986 to be reopened by man who investigated 2003 killing of foreign minister Published: 15 Nov 2016 Who Killed Swedish PM Olof Palme? Five Best Conspiracy Theories Who Killed Swedish PM Olof Palme?

Five Best Conspiracy Theories February 26, 2014 15:38 GMT 1984 file picture of Sweden's prime minister Olof PalmeReuters Revelations that the late crime blockbuster novelist Stieg Larsson sent police 15 boxes of papers linking the killing of prime minister Olof Palme to South Africa has rekindled interest in Sweden's greatest unsolved murder mystery. The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo writer, who died of heart attack in 2004, identified Bertil Wedin, a Swede living in Cyprus, as the killer. Wedin, who denied in an interview with tabloid Svenska Dagbladet any involvement with the crime, was said to have been a mercenary hired by South African security services. Palme was gunned down as he walked home from a cinema with his wife in February 1986. He was a vocal critic of the apartheid regime in South Africa and rumours that pretoria's security services were behind the hit made headlines in the 90s.

The Social Democrat, who was PM between 1969 and 1976 and again between 1982 and 1986, was hated by conservatives at home and abroad for his anti-colonial views and criticism of the US. Conspiracy theories have dogged the murder since it was committed, with no fewer than 130 people confessing to the killing. Amateur investigators, including Larsson, were rebranded "privatspanare" or private scouts in Swedish slang. What are the most intriguing conspiracy theories? 1. Yugoslavian connection Former Yugoslav secret service assassin Vinko SindicicReuters Germany's Focus magazine in 2011 cited official German interrogation records that said the murder had been carried out by a contract killer hired by the Yugoslavian security service. Yugoslavian hitman Vinko Sindicic claimed he knew the killer, who he named as Ivo D. Tito, the former Yugoslav dictator, had ordered his secret police to assassinate dissidents across the world (although he died in 1980). 2.

PKK and the Kurds A demonstrator waves a flag with the portrait of PKK jailed leader Abdullah OcalanReuters Another popular theory was that Palme was assassinated by the Kurdistan separatist group PKK. The Stockholm police commissioner at the time was a supporter of the theory – although it ultimately led to his dismissal from the investigation. In April 2011 a team of Swedish police officers interviewed jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan about a Kurdish connection. 3. Swedish security services Pedestrians walk past a plaque marking the location where Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot and killedReuters The German weekly Die Zeit ran an article by Klaus-Deieter Knapp in 1995 which presented the murder as a conspiracy by Swedish right-wing extremist police officers. 4. Christer Pettersson Christer PetterssonPolice file This petty criminal and drug addict, who was identified by Palme's widow, was tried and convicted of the murder but later acquitted on appeal to the High Court. Evidence against him resurfaced in the late 1990s but was not enough to prove his involvement. A documentary aired on STV in 2006 featured several associates of Pettersson claiming that he had confessed.

5. Apartheid South Africa A condolence book together with a photograph of late South African president Nelson Mandela posing beside the statue of former Social Democratic Party leader Olof PalmeReuters One week before the murder, Palme, made an emotional speech to the Swedish parliament against apartheid in Stockholm. Former South African police officer Col Eugene de Kock said in Septemebr 1996 that Palme had been killed because he "strongly opposed the apartheid regime and Sweden made substantial contributions to the ANC [African National Congress]". De Kock named Craig Williamson, a former police colleague and a South African agent, as the assassin but no proof was ever uncovered.

Share Stay up to date with our daily newsletter YOU MIGHT LIKE THISSponsored Content by Taboola IBT Video Olof Palme | prime minister of Sweden | Britannica.com prime minister of Sweden Alternative Title: Sven Olof Joachim Palme Olof Palme Charles XII Olof Palme, in full Sven Olof Joachim Palme (born January 30, 1927, Stockholm , Sweden —died February 28, 1986, Stockholm), prime minister of Sweden (1969–76, 1982–86), prominent leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Workers’ Party (Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Arbetar Partiet), Sweden’s oldest continuing party. He became Sweden’s best-known international politician. Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme with Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland in … ©Deanpictures/Dreamstime.com Born into a wealthy Stockholm family, Palme studied at Kenyon College , Ohio, U.S. (B.A., 1948), and obtained a law degree from Stockholm University in 1951.

An active member of the Social Democrats from the early 1950s, Palme became Prime Minister Tage Erlander’s personal secretary in 1953 and entered the Swedish Parliament in 1958. Palme joined the Social Democratic government in 1963 as minister without portfolio. In 1965 he advanced to the post of minister of communication and in 1967 to the dual post of minister of education and ecclesiastical affairs. He succeeded Erlander as party secretary and as prime minister in 1969. Soon afterward his attacks on U.S. war policy in Vietnam and his acceptance of U.S. Army deserters who sought refuge in Sweden led to strained relations between his country and the United States . (He denied the deserters official political refugee status, however, saying that one could not be a refugee from a free country.) The 1976 general election resulted in the defeat of the Social Democrats after 44 years in power. Between terms in office Palme continued to be active in his party and maintained his strong pacifist stance.

He also had close personal relations with European Social Democratic politicians such as Bruno Kreisky of Austria and Willy Brandt of West Germany . He served as president of the Nordic Council from 1979 to 1980, chaired the Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security in Geneva, and acted as UN special envoy to mediate in the war between Iran and Iraq. The nuclear accident in 1979 at Three Mile Island in the United States had a great impact in Sweden, and Palme contributed to a referendum (passed in 1980) to remove all nuclear reactors in Sweden. After being elected prime minister again in 1982, Palme tried to reinstate socialist economic policies in Sweden, and he continued to be outspoken on matters of European security. Palme was assassinated by a gunman in 1986. Christer Pettersson, a man who had previously served jail time for manslaughter, was convicted of the crime in July 1989 and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, the conviction was overturned in an appeals court that October on the grounds that no murder weapon or motive had been discovered. Though an extensive investigation was conducted and numerous theories posited, the murder remains unsolved.

Learn More in these related articles: Olof Palme/Assassination - Wikispooks Olof Palme/Assassination Blood on a street in downtown Stockholm after the assassination of Olof Palme Date 6 References Official Narrative On 28 February 1986, Olof Palme was assassinated whilst walking home from a cinema with his wife, Lisbet. He died from gunshots fired by a single attacker. Police said that a taxi driver used his radio to raise the alarm. Two young girls sitting in a car close to the scene of the shooting also tried to help the prime minister. He was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival at 00:06 Central European Time (CET) the next day. The commercially-controlled media was very quick to blamed the assassination on a " lone-nut " gunman and excluded a political motive. [1] . Two years later, Christer Pettersson , a small-time criminal and drug addict, was arrested, tried and convicted for Palme's murder, but hie conviction was later overturned by the Svea Court of Appeal. The crime remains unsolved.

Alternative theories Just released from jail, Nelson Mandela meets Neil and Glenys Kinnock in Stockholm Evidence is emerging that Olof Palme's assassination was precipitated by his effective opposition to the policies of powerful geo-political interests, most notable of these being the apartheid South African regime as set out below. [2] Apartheid South Africa Circumstantial evidence suggests that Palme may have been killed on the orders of South African President P W Botha 's State Security Council (SSC), whose sub-committee member Craig Williamson admitted being the person responsible on the SSC for "target selection". [3] According to Swedish investigative journalist Stieg Larsson, Craig Williamson orchestrated Palme 's murder and mercenary Bertil Wedin carried it out. [4] Williamson was granted amnesty for a number of crimes he committed during the apartheid era, but has never applied for amnesty in respect of the murders of Olof Palme, Samora Machel or Bernt Carlsson .

[5] On 21 February 1986, Olof Palme made the keynote speech at the opening session of the 'Swedish People's Parliament Against Apartheid' which was held in Stockholm and attended by hundreds of anti-apartheid sympathisers as well as leaders and officials from the ANC such as Oliver Tambo. In his speech, Olof Palme declared: "Apartheid cannot be reformed, it has to be eliminated" (reproduced in a 1986 poster by Cuban artist Rafael Enriquez). One week later, on 28 February 1986, Olof Palme was murdered. Olof Palme's protégé and political ally, UN Commissioner for Namibia Bernt Carlsson , died when Pan Am Flight 103 was sabotaged over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988. Carlsson was on his way to New York to attend the signing ceremony on 22 December 1988 at United Nations headquarters of an agreement granting independence to Namibia , which had been illegally occupied by apartheid South Africa in defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 435 .

Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela chose Sweden as his first port of call in Europe because of all the support the ANC had received over many years from the Swedish government, especially from Olof Palme. Ingvar Carlsson , the new prime minister, invited British politicians Neil and Glenys Kinnock to come to Stockholm in April 1990 and greet Mr Mandela . That meeting was recalled by Neil Kinnock in a television interview on 8 December 2013 (three days after Nelson Mandela 's death). [6] 2014 Revelations In February 2014, the Swedish Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper revealed its findings after a report that South Africa lay behind the assassination of Olof Palme. Novelist and journalist Stieg Larsson 's long-term partner Ewa Gabrielsson had provided Dagbladet with 15 boxes of material that Larsson had compiled on his quest to solve the murder.

Much of the paperwork focused on Cyprus-based Swede Bertil Wedin, with documents stating that the suspected mercenary may have been in contact with South African security services in the run up to the murder of the fierce anti-apartheid critic Palme . SvD reported that Wedin had confessed four years before the murder in a British court case that he had been in touch with South African agent Craig Williamson . [7] Building upon the Dagbladet story, the BBC Radio 4 programme "Document" of 28 July 2014 - presented by Gordon Corera - supported the South African narrative for Olof Palme's assassination. Corera cited the following as potentially being implicated in Palme 's murder: The accusers were Edward Aspinall , Peter Calcara , Duncan Campbell , Gerry Gable , Barry Gilder , Stieg Larsson , Guardian journalist David Leigh , Tor Sellström and Jan Stoklasa . [8] Western Intelligence agencies Trowbridge H. Ford has claimed that Palme was assassinated in partly due to the effectiveness of his opposition to arms deals , and that the assassination went according to plan, the "British and American intelligence services having completely hoodwinked their Swedish counterparts".

[9] Palme, the documentary The 2012 film Palme Palme is a Swedish documentary film premiered in Sweden on 14 September 2012 and written by Maud Nycander and Kristina Lindström. The film is a biographical portrait of the former prime minister Olof Palme, and covers his life from childhood to the role as a leading figure of Swedish politics. On general release in 2012, it has been shown as a 103-minute long feature film, and as a 175-minute long TV-movie in three parts on SVT at Christmas and New Year. [10] Plot On Friday evening, February 28, 1986 Olof Palme was shot dead in the street. The day after, news reached out to the people that the country's prime minister was dead, and the whole country found itself suddenly shocked. In the film, one can follow Palme's life from his youth until he is murdered. His long career in the Swedish Social Democratic Party is also shown. Other subjects that the film also treats are more controversial topics, for example the situation with the IB affair.

The film focuses on the person Olof Palme, as in almost 26 years has been overshadowed by his sudden death. It contains material from Palme's family that has never been shown in public, private snapshots and family movies. Related Documents Who Killed Prime Minister Palme?: Swedish Investigators Find Possible Murder Weapon - SPIEGEL ONLINE Who Killed Prime Minister Palme?: Swedish Investigators Find Possible Murder Weapon Who Killed Prime Minister Palme? Swedish Investigators Find Possible Murder Weapon A gun that has lain at the bottom of a Swedish lake for two decades could provide the clue to solving the question of who killed Prime Minister Olaf Palme in 1986. But will it reveal its secrets? November 22, 2006 02:44 PM AP A file photo of former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, assassinated in 1986. For years, Sweden has been wondering who assassinated Prime Minister Olaf Palme more than two decades ago. Numerous leads have proven dead-ends and one suspect, arrested for the murder, had to be released for lack of evidence in 1989. Police hadn't even managed to find the murder weapon. Until now.

Following a tip-off, divers recovered a Smith and Wesson revolver from a lake in central Sweden on Monday that may be somehow linked to the assassination. Police investigator Stig Edqvist told reporters on Tuesday that the gun is thought to be the one used in a post office robbery in the village of Mockfjard in 1983. Forensics experts have already determined that the bullets fired in that crime matched those found at the scene of Palme's murder. The divers searched the lake following a tip-off from the tabloid newspaper Expressen. The paper has refused to reveal its source. The lake in the province of Dalarna had already been trawled seven times in the search for the gun. Palme was shot on Feb. 28, 1986 as he was walking home from a Stockholm cinema with his wife Lisbet. As was his habit on private occasions, he had given his bodyguards the evening off. A man shot him in the back two times and then escaped down a dark alley. Three years after the assassination, police arrested Christer Pettersson, a drug addict and small time criminal.

He was identified by Lisbet Palme as her husband's killer but was released again in 1989 due to lack of evidence. He died in a Stockholm clinic in 2004. The serial number on the discovered revolver is that of the so-called 'Mockfjard weapon' Edqvist told reporters but he added that "we dont know if it is possible to confirm or reject" that the same gun was used in the Palme killing. The weapon is now being examined at the National Laboratory for Forensic Science in southern Sweden. It is doubtful how much it will reveal after spending two decades at the bottom of a lake. Robert Calsson, head of the lab's chemical and technical unit, said the likelihood that the gun could be fired again is minimal and this is necessary to compare the bullets and trace them.

He added that the chances of the gun including fingerprints or DNA traces were "small, not to say microscopic." smd/ap Bush and CIA behind the Palmemurder - Palmemordet also in Swedish (Updated 2013-01-19) By John P Anderson The responsibility for Olof Palme's murder belongs with the CIA and the political network in the world controlled by the American intelligence apparatus. I tend to think that the CIA and George Bush are the "bad guys" here. Bush continued the policies of wars for profit with deliveries of weapons to Iran, Iraq and the Contras. The Prime Minister of Sweden, Olof Palme, was assassinated in 1986 as he exited a cinema at around 10 PM with his wife. Olof Palme was certainly a controversial politician in Sweden, and had during the decades before his murder become controversial even outside the borders of Sweden. He became the social democratic Prime Minister for the first time in the late 60's and by this time he had already acquired a high profile on the Swedish political scene and was even somewhat known on the US one.

As the Vietnam quagmire deepened, Palme took a strong stand against the American policies and even led anti Vietnam War demonstrations through the streets of Stockholm. I myself participated in some of these demonstrations, although I never caught a glimpse of the well known politician. The assassin managed to escape from the death scene , running through some small streets towards a local park. In the aftermath of the murder, the police authorities gravitated towards investigating the small Kurdish community in Sweden. Soon the newspapers were filled with stories of threats made against Palme by Kurdish extremists because of some actions taken by Palme that were considered detrimental to the Kurdish cause. In the long run these suspicions didn't pan out and within a few years a local Swedish hoodlum, Krister Pettersson was indicted for the crime and subsequently convicted of it. The conviction was appealed and the Swedish Supreme Court soon freed Mr. Pettersson for insufficient evidence. The prosecution again tried to bring the suspect to court but was stopped by the same Court for similar reasons. From afar in the US I occasionally followed the developments, noticing the mushrooming leads that seemed to point in all kinds of different directions.

Parts of the local Swedish police were suspected of the crime, then the Kurds again, followed by other suspects like the Chilean "Operation Condor", the European terrorist organization P2, the South African apartheid regime's intelligence services, not to mention the local Swedish Extreme Right. When I first heard of the assassination I was sure it was politically motivated. I knew for a fact that Palme was hated like few other politicians in Sweden by his opponents, somewhat for his effectiveness but mainly for his cutting and sarcastic political debating style that left his opponents frequently in tatters. My own father, a farmer, was no lover of social democracy in general, and Palme especially was like a red shirt in front of a bull to him, leaving him frequently sputtering with indignation. It wasn't farfetched to believe that a local Swedish political fanatic could have committed the deed. But I thought I knew it was atypical of the Swedish temperament to commit such a brutal political crime, the papers afterwards frequently lamented the fact that Sweden now had lost its innocence, not unlike the US reaction to the JFK assassination.

My early suspicions inevitably turned towards the US Intelligence Services since I knew that they would have no qualms about getting rid of Palme if it would further their purposes. From my studies of the Reagan administration I knew that it was very likely that the CIA had sabotaged the Carter rescue attempt of the American hostages in Iran. The attempt turned out to be a disaster with helicopters and airplanes colliding even before any serious attempt was under way. I was sure that the rumors of the "October Surprise" were correct, since even a Reagan insider confirmed that the Reagan campaign had closed a deal with the mullahs in Teheran to delay the release of the American hostages so that President Carter wouldn't be able to claim credit for the release and thus win the 1980 election. A friend of mine, who had become tired of my interest in the JFK assassination , suggested that political murders in the US were no big deal, even Sweden had prominent politicians murdered. This was during the time that the prosecution still was pursuing Krister Pettersson, the freed suspect. I recall having to bite my tongue, since I wanted to reply that the murder of Palme could probably be traced to the CIA and its sister organizations.

A few years later, my suspicions gained considerable credence. During my perusal of political controversies on the Internet I ran across a former American CIA agent by the name of "Chip"Tatum, whose spilling of the beans were interesting to say the least. According to Tatum, the US had been awash in political shenanigans during the 80's , the CIA had financed the Contras with drug sales in targeted black neighborhoods and corrupted the then Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, in the process. All this activity was headed by George Bush, the Vice President. Any individual standing in the way of this criminal operation was summarily done away with. I bolted upright when Tatum revealed that the Prime Minister of Sweden, Olof Palme, was murdered on behalf of a hidden organization, the OSG, which had a certain colonel Oliver North in a leading role. North's ultimate superior was Vice President George Bush. I quickly drew the conclusion, that the investigation into Palme's murder was the same type of cover-up operation as the Warren Commission had been. It seemed to me that the reach of the American intelligence agencies extended all the way into the top echelons of Sweden's political elite and police authority.

In my mind I conjured up training facilities somewhere in the US, where na�ve Swedish politicians and police investigators were sent to learn how to run an investigation in such a fashion that the cover-up would have a minimal chance of being exposed. I have a feeling that their teachers were somewhat confounded with some of the careless statements by leading Swedish pupils though. One investigator let slip: "If the truth about the assassination of Olof Palme were ever to be known, it would shake Sweden to its foundation!" Another commented: "It would be best if the murder of Palme were never solved." One of my suspicions from the elections of 1992, the fact that there had to be some political dirty tricks behind the inexplicable withdrawal of candidate Perot during the summer of 1992, turned out to be correct. "Salandria's Law" definitively suggested that some action on behalf of the Bush campaign had caused Perot's damaging exit, and Tatum confirmed it, in fact he revealed that this episode was the determining factor in his decision to quit intelligence activities.

Tatum had been approached by the OSG and Bush to assassinate Perot, but had refused, since he didn't want to be involved in the killing of American citizens as opposed to foreign ones. He informed the shocked officials that he had stacked away evidence of criminal activities by the Reagan/Bush administrations in at least six countries, and if he didn't check in at certain times, these recipients were to release the documents. He agreed to let himself be framed on minor charges in order to acquire a felon status that could be used against him in case he went public, but when his wife was subsequently also jailed, Tatum went public anyway. Since a few years now, he has disappeared totally from the scene, some say he has made a deal with the establishment to keep quiet and some say he probably has been mixed in concrete and is resting on the ocean floor. In early 1999, I had managed to acquire a tape featuring "Chip" Tatum, where he disclosed how Palme had been set up and murdered, and I was pondering if it was worth it to try to alert Swedish newspapers to the fact that this valuable tape existed.

I decided to write a story about the new evidence and sent it by e-mail to the three largest Swedish newspapers. Then I proceeded to wait to see if there would be any reaction. I was soon disappointed, there were no mention of this new angle to the continuing Palme investigation. In fact, other gossipy assassination angles frequently appeared, but the tape of Tatum disappeared into the dark recesses of the papers. (But not on Leopold Report, here you can listen to the short sequence when Gene Tatum talk about the Palmemurder and more than one hour about the background): Listen to the tape here One such story featured the Kurd leader, Ocalan, who with the help of CIA had been captured by Turkish authorities and transported in bondage to Turkey. Soon afterwards reports from Turkey had Ocalan saying to his captors that his former wife was behind the assassination of Palme. I had to laugh to myself, the CIA and its Turkish sister organization certainly didn't waste any time putting out disinformation. Later I ran across a Swedish retired journalist, who had set up a web site about the Palme murder.

This journalist, who during his career often had met with Palme, was on the right track when he thought that it was worthwhile to pursue the CIA angle of the assassination. I decided to sent him the story I had written for the Swedish papers and hit pay dirt. Within a few days he had plastered a shortened version on his web site, where the story promptly died. Not one paper followed up on the revelations. I quickly drew some conclusions about the reach of the American intelligence agencies, they obviously had their tentacles all the way into the managing structures of the main Swedish media. Here is the whole story from which excerpts were published: "My name is John Anderson, I was born in Sweden, emigrated to the United States in the 1970’s. During my youth I participated in anti Vietnam War demonstrations in Stockholm and saw Olof Palme as a political hero of mine. As we all know Olof Palme was assassinated in 1986 and the case is still unsolved although there is an abundance of theories about who and what was behind the assassination.

Since the advent of the Internet I have been able to follow the news in Sweden about the continuing investigation while living in the United States slowly absorbing its culture and political secrets. This perspective of mine, gained over the last two decades, have led me to a simple conclusion. The responsibility for Olof Palme’s murder belongs with the CIA and the political network controlled by the American intelligence apparatus. In my hands I have a tape of a CIA “black bag operative” stating knowledge of a decision by the same apparatus to eliminate Palme using a South African operative. I believe this person to be telling the truth. How did I arrive at such a conclusion. I grew up with a youthful admiration for all things American, not unusual in the late 50’s and early 60’s. As I gained more knowledge this was tempered by my distaste for US support of all “Tin Pot dictators” around the world and of course because of Vietnam. A defining moment in my life was the assassination of JFK in 1963. Since I came to the US I have studied this assassination a great deal and in the process discovered the truth about American democracy.

Not only was there a coup d’etate in 1963, but the modern history of the USA is bunk, a myth propagated by the mastering of “public relations” at the service of a “Shadow Government” instituted in 1947 if not earlier. In order to understand what has happened we need to go back to the 30’s. The Great Depression brought FDR to power and with him policies that were abhorred by the powers that be in the USA. Within a year of FDR’s ascent to the Presidency, large parts of the establishment were conspiring to overthrow FDR in favor of a fascist state. This is verifiable history, the coup failed because the general, who had been tapped to lead the overthrow balked. The media wouldn’t reveal the coup attempt since the economic elite was behind it. This same elite watched Hitler tame the depression by turning his countrymen against the Jews and establishing a war economy while profits were still low to nonexistent back home. They watched Hitler go down in flames and they decided that what was needed for the USA was a set-up like Hitler’s but concealed in such a way that the people would have no reason to object to fascist policies.

And this is exactly what they created in the years following WWII. The enemy was easy and right around the corner, world wide Communism, even better than the Jews, by now we know that the war economy lasted for a half century, it hasn’t petered out yet because there are always other enemies right around the corner. The public relations and other aspects of the new system fell to the newly created CIA, which has put its operatives in every elite media institution in such a clever way that the vast majority of the people have no idea that they are spoon fed only approved news. Here, finally, are the reasons for all undemocratic policies the US has followed since WWII, the establishment knew of no other way of keeping a modern economy going but through the creation of a series of wars supported by the people through secret manipulation.

George Herbert Walker Bush was recruited by the CIA in the 50’s, he was part and parcel of the ”Bay of Pigs” invasion in 1961, he became CIA director in 1976 to protect the agency, he directed the efforts to defeat President Carter successfully through dirty tricks like sabotage of the Carter rescue mission to Teheran in 1979, he then closed a deal with the Iranians to delay the release of the American hostages so that Ronald Reagan would be elected, whereupon he wrestled the presidency away from Reagan with the help of the CIA. He continued the policies of wars for profit with deliveries of weapons to Iran, Iraq and the Contras. Regarding Iran though, he had a problem, these deliveries had to be kept a secret because Iran was an enemy. In order to accomplish this he needed third countries to collude with him by allowing “end certificates” for weapons to be routed through their countries to Iran. And this is where Olof Palme met his destiny, he was approached about letting Bofors route American weapons to Iran through false “end certificates” and he refused.

By this time the powers that be had policies in force to “align” wobbly and weak-kneed leaders of nations within the US sphere of influence. So Palme was “aligned” by a South African operative. There is no doubt that influential Swedish politicians know what happened as well as parts of the Swedish police, but they are precluded from revealing what they know through threats and their own powerlessness. As far as all the false leads leading nowhere, this is the specialty of CIA since JFK’s murder. They are masters at this game, the way they win is when people are so confused that they throw up their arms in defeat.The name of the CIA operative is Dois Gene Chip Tatum. Later I sent the audio file with Tatum commenting on the murder, which ended up on the web page. Still not a word from the established Swedish media, although the site had hits approaching 50,000 per month. Recently this site had visits from 34 countries during one specific month, including visits from US military and government personnel!

Question: In what year was Olaf Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, assassinated?
Answer: 1986